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Ryan looked vacantly toward Lucinda as she reminisced about her time on the island. As she spoke, he could not help but force a smile he hoped she could not tell was fake. Her story, it was just like everyone else’s. They had all been on the island, nearly lost all of their hopes and dreams for good, but they had been saved in the nick of time and now they could go and fulfill all of those dreams. He had heard it half a dozen times since he had returned from that wretched place. As these thoughts ran through his mind, something Lucinda said finally peaked his interest.

“Promised to help you find... who, Lucinda?” he could not help but inquire.

She was looking for someone on that island. Who was she looking for? Just another ally, maybe. Everyone there seemed to be in search of allies. People they could trust. It was only natural, after all. There is safety in numbers, or so they say, anyway. I probably don’t care about that? Well, even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be rude enough to admit it. That would be crossing the line. How about me? I’m spectacular, can’t you tell? A faint grin once again formed on Ryan’s lips as he nodded toward the girl.

“I’m doing good... parents wanted to keep me under lock and key for a while there, but mom knows my education is more important than that. I’ve fallen behind in my school work, especially in that college course I’m taking, but I mean... the teacher understands. Not like I intentionally missed out, you know? Either way, I’m glad things are back to normal, and I hope they stay that way for a long, long time.”

Just as Ryan had finished his sentence, the bus came to a screeching halt in front of the school. Standing up, he grabbed his book bag and flung it over his shoulder, then nodded toward Lucinda. They had not finished their discussion yet, he was sure she would follow him. As he headed off the bus and strolled onto campus, he could not help but frown slightly at the dark and dreary day they had been presented with. On top of it all, everyone seemed to sad, so hollow.

He turned to address Lucinda again, but something else caught his eye. Another girl stood not far from the couple, hovering somewhat awkwardly. He had come to know this girl quite well during his time on the island. As a matter of fact, he had spent most of his time with her. She had become a good friend, or so Ryan liked to think. Silently, he contemplated whether they would remain close now that things had returned to “normal”.

“Hey Cass,” he called out lightly.

Casting an almost awkward smile at her, he nodded for her to join himself and Lucinda. It’s funny. It’s almost like I’ve made more friends out of this whole island incident. I guess you really do need friends around, you can’t just stay isolated and alone your entire life.

_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--

As the loud, booming voice reverberated through the once silent library, Lyndi’s head jerked up rapidly in search of the cause of the loud noise. People around her were staring, whoever had just yelled had been addressing her. The source of the noise was standing right in front of her, in the form of a young man with whom she had become better acquainted with on the island, by the name of Vince Samsa. Lyndi smiled placidly at him, replying in a much quieter, much more hushed tone.

"Who were you expecting?"

Smiling slightly, she motioned for Vince to take a seat in one of the empty chairs on the other side of the table. After a moment, she propped her feet up on the table and leaned back, her eyes scanning the young man across from her. What do you ask in a situation like this, anyway? Continuing to smile, Lyndi tried to shake all the fret and worry from her mind, it was over now.

"Glad to see you're doing alright. After everything that's happened, it's so hard to sit here and just... let everything go back to normal. You seem to be taking things well. Better than most, anyway."

Averting her gaze from the young man, she scanned the library once again. So many of the faces looked so familiar, but it was hard to look some of them in the eye anymore. There were kids in the classroom that had most assuredly murdered and aided in the deaths of their fellow students. Now, they were all sitting there as if nothing happened. At least, that was how it appeared.

"Have you... seen anyone else yet?" Lyndi inquired quietly. "I'd like to see them... Elsie and... and Fred. I really would. Everyone else I'd come into contact with on the island well..."

Forcing a smile, Lyndi's voice cracked slightly when she began to think about what had happened to the others she had come across. As she invisioned Callum Hadley's body once again, a fish hook gouging one eye out, the other eye had been completely removed from its socket and replaced with a rock, and his tongue had been ripped out of his mouth, a feeling of sickness and sorrow swept over her. Fighting to blink back the tears forming in her eyes, she managed to finish her sentence.

"They're all gone now."

_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--*_*--

When I woke up, all I remember seeing was white. There were people standing over me, I was hooked up to an IV. They said I had barely made it, that if they had not found me as soon as they did I would have died. It's strange, I don't remember much. Just bits and pieces. Faces, people. Things that happened in that... that place. I don't want to remember anymore. I want everything to go away, to go back to normal. I'm home now... I'm home. They can't hurt me anymore, they won't.

Last night, Jill Gatling had finally been released from the hospital, after narrowly escaping death. She was unable to tell the doctors what had happened to her, she did not know herself. The doctors told her she had a case of amnesia, and though it was not severe and she would recover quickly, at present, she was completely baffled. Had they not told her of her time on the island, she would not have known anything of it.

She had completely shut out the events that had resulted in her mysterious and nearly fatal injuries. Who caused them? Why did they do it? Why Jill? At least she was alive. Besides, did she really want to remember? The only thing she could remember from her entire stint on the island was a few faces. Perhaps it was better that way.

Unable to remember the carnage, the violence, and the bloodshed, Jill had in essence formed a protective bubble around herself. She was unable to remember the pain, the heartache, and the sheer hell that she went through in that place. The doctors had told her that she would remember one day, but in truth, she had no desire to. She did not want to know who had nearly killed her, why they had not finished her off, or even how she got off the island. She was content not knowing anything more than the fact that she had escaped with her life.

When she went back to school... if... she went back to school, she would not know who had murdered their classmates. Perhaps it was better that way. Now, Jill lay on her bed, staring vacantly up at the ceiling. Perhaps she would wait to go to school, just another day. She just needed time... time to recooperate.

Lucinda found herself watching Ryan lightly, a small smile coming up on his face at the sight of his less enthused one. Sighing a bit, she lightly rubbed at a spot on her arm noting to herself that she probably had just sounded about stupid, going off with all that stuff… he had just asked how she was, not what had happened. Bowing her head a bit, the word ‘stupid’ currently racing through her mind.

Though at his question, she shyly found herself looking back up and slowly blinking a bit. Lucinda’s eyes drifting off some, before allowing a small smile to cross her lips. Truth be told getting it off her chest might not be so bad… then again the fear of rejection is what kept her from doing much about. And as Ryan went about answering her own question, she couldn’t help the grin had spread. ‘Same as ever I see…’

She was thrown from her world of thoughts as the bus came to a sudden halt before the school, she watching lightly as Ryan nodding toward her, and proceeded to leave the bus, Lucinda grabbing her own bookbag and fixing it onto her shoulder. Swaying a bit at the weight, before following him off, looking up a bit around the school itself and the gloomy atmosphere that surrounded the area today.

Sighing once again, she glanced back toward Ryan as she heard him address another, her eyes drifting to meet whomever. Of course in the hustle and bustle about, she wasn’t quite able to see whom exacting her was talking too. And smiling once again, she found herself opening her mouth, answering the question he had asked on the bus. “It’s silly really,” Lucinda said, rocking on the heels of his shoes a bit. “But I was looking for a special someone… someone who brought a little cheer and life back into me in those darker times on the island, wanting to find that person is what kept me going.

Silly like I said… a situation like that and I’m worried about finding some boy I like, but really without knowing it… he did help me survive in some way, even if I never did find him while we where there.” By now she was flushed again in her cheeks, but in thanks to the cold weather around it looked almost as if she was simply cold.

And still unsure if he had even heard those words, she smiled a little turning her face toward the ground. “The person I was looking for… I… I was looking for you.” She finally burted out, keeping her face toward the ground.

“Hard not to honestly.” Vince said guiltily “I mean I did virtually nothing on the island and I come back and I am this big star! I am a fucking sophomore and I have already been asked to go to play college foot ball… guess all that running I did back there.’ he said sadly “Fred, well I think I saw him in the locker room the other day, not really sure about him playing soccer… got a couple of bullets stuck in his thigh at the island.” Vince didn’t want to send only bad news.

“But, he and his brother are reunited and my psychologist is really helping me out.” he said sarcastically “‘You are chronically afraid of death and pain has you have been surrounded by it constantly, due to football and your mothers brutal death… it is a surprise that you where able to cling on to your sanity on that island’” he said in a mocking voice “But, whatever… what is going on with you?” he said opening his book and starting to take notes.

Ryan had been neglecting listening to Lucinda as she started speaking, him being more concerned with the fact that he had found Cassie Webber, a person he considered to be a rather good friend after the events that had unfolded on the island. However, when Lucinda had said her piece, Ryan’s full attention almost instantaneously turned back to her. What had she just said?

“You were... you were looking for me?” he blurted out uncouthly.

Immediately, Ryan’s face flushed a bright red in color. That was certainly not what he had expected her to say. He had expected her to confess her undying love for one of the star football players, or one of the baseball guys, or something. But... not him. Not plain, old, never-did-anything-interesting Ryan Ashmore. Biting his lower lip, he glanced back at Cassie, wondering if she had heard Lucinda’s remark, and if so, what she was thinking in that instant. Unsure of what to say to the girl, Ryan rubbed the back of his neck.

“Lu...”

So now what? I... certainly wasn’t expecting that. Truth be told, I had never even though about Lucinda like that. She was just a friend, just another girl. I wonder how long she’s felt this way about me. I never noticed. Never picked up on it. What do I say? What do I do? Ah man, I should never have asked. Now I’ve gone and gotten myself into a sticky situation. It’s not like I don’t like her, I’ve just never thought about her in that way. Never thought she thought about me like that, either. Ah...

Before he knew it, Ryan found himself grinning enthusiastically at the girl. He certainly did not want his friend to feel rejected. It was not as if he was rejecting her, anyway. He simply needed to get used to this idea. In his mind, Lucinda Garnett had never quite been his type. There were other girls who liked him, or so he liked to think. A friend of his once told him that one of the cheerleaders had quite a thing for him. At the time, he was not interested, but as he thought about it, he realized that Lucinda certainly was not like those girls. Laughing nervously, Ryan finally managed to utter something else.

Again he smiled a sheepish smile at the girl, still rubbing on the back of his neck absent-mindedly. His eyes turned to Cassie, then back to Lucinda. Shaking his head somewhat, he let his arm drop down to his side. If this was not an awkward situation, Ryan did not know what was. He did not really know if he was interested in Lucinda like that, he had never given it a second thought, but now, he was pretty much confronted head-on with that decision, and he was completely and totally unprepared for it.

As Vince regaled Lyndi with his tales from life after the island, she could not help but smile a bit. Especially as Samsa told her that both of the Hughes brothers were alright. It was funny, how in such a short time, she had found herself feeling so close to someone, but in this instance, she certainly had. Brushing a few stands of hair away from her face, she exhaled lightly, still looking at Samsa.

"I'm glad things are okay now," she found herself mumbling quietly.

As Samsa inquired as to her current status, Lyndi bit down on her lower lip lightly. By her current status, she was not permitted to speak to him in the first place, which is what had pretty much kept her from seeing Vince, Elsie, and Fred since she had arrived home. Should she tell him about the events of the night before?

"You're not to speak to those people, young lady," her mother instructed in a harsh tone.

They had all wanted to forget the events that had unfolded on that island, probably Lyndi most of all, but her parents had not taken the predicament well either. Ever since she had gotten home, they had kept her under lock and key. Her mother had unintentionally sent her into hysterics the night before as she ranted and raved about how close she was to losing her only daughter, not to mention, the baby of the family.

When she had first arrived at home, everyone had welcomed her with open arms, thrilled that she had made it back in one piece. As the evening progressed, however, things started to go downhill. The discussion at the dinner table had gone into whether or not Lyndi would attend school the next morning. Her mother, always one to overreact to things, had set her mind on not allowing Lyndi to return to Barry Coleson High.

After nearly a two hour debate between Lyndi's father and mother, her mother finally consented and told Lyndi she would be allowed to return to Barry Coleson. However, her mother's next new rule was one that Lyndi had deemed completely absurd. Tears filled her eyes as she stood in the kitchen, she and her mother practically screaming at the top of their lungs at one another.

"You can't be serious! They kept me alive back there, mom! They're the reason I'm standing here right now, I'd be dead without them. Dead! After all that, you're telling me that I can't see them? You've got to be kidding. Mom, please..."

Stubbornly, Lyndi's mother glared at the young girl, anger and resentment in her eyes as she discussed the friends Lyndi had made on the island. Even the thought of Elsie Darroch, who had spent many a night at the Thibodeaux household before, completely disgusted her mother. It was a greedy decision, yes. A cold and callous one at that, but as bad as she genuinely felt for refusing to allow Lyndi to see 'those people', her heart was set on it.

"Absolutely not, young lady! All they're going to do is cause you problems! They'll remind you, they'll remind me. Think about someone other than yourself, Lyndi! Do you want all of us to go through that? Do you want to put your father and I through that, and your brother?! We've already been forced to place you in their highly incapable hands once, and I won't have it again. You don't need them and you're not going to be around them, and that's the end of it!"

Shaking furiously, Lyndi glared up at her mother. Something had changed between them in the time that Lyndi had spent on the island. Whether it was Lyndi who had changed or her mother, she really did not know, and in truth, she did not care. Right now, she was outraged. Continuing to sob in between her words, Lyndi retorted to her mother's decision.

"Me think about someone else?! Why don't YOU?! It's all about you, what you went through. Well guess what mom, YOU WEREN'T THERE! You didn't deal with anything compared to what I went through, and now you want to punish me because YOU can't deal? This is ridiculous!"

Spinning around on her heels, Lyndi stopped through the kitchen. Moments later, her footsteps echoed up the steps as she ran up them. As the slammed her bedroom door, the loud noise echoed throughout the Thibodeaux household. After locking the door behind her, Lyndi through herself onto her bed in tears...

She was snapped back to reality by the staring eyes of Vince Samsa, who was expectantly awaiting her response to his question. Forcing a fake smile, Lyndi brushed back the tears that had formed in her eyes as she reminisced about the incident of the previous night. Brushing her hair out of her face once again, she began to formulate a response.

"I'm doing fine... unfortunately, mom's not faring so well. She went ballistic when I came home. She doesn't want me seeing you... or Elsie... or... Fred."

Tears continued to well up in Lyndi's eyes as she tried to force herself not to cry. Biting down on her lower lip again, Lyndi turned her head upward, trying to hold back the tears that had formed in her eyes. She closed her eyes, and after taking in a deep breath, she looked back at Vince Samsa.

"But it doesn't matter. She'll chill out, she just needs... time. I'm still going to talk to you all, she can't force me to forget about everyone... and everything. I just hope she'll understand someday. She thinks she had it bad, having to watch me on television. She has no idea how bad it really was."

Looking down at the table, Lyndi noticed her hands were shaking visibly. Reminiscing about the fight that had ensued had gotten her somewhat upset, and it was showing. Despite that, she tried to calm herself down and put her best face on as she continued her talk with Samsa.

“It wasn’t that bad. ..” Vince said quietly “It made me find myself, I’m a pussy and I am a weak bastard.” he thought about what Lyndi had said “Never expect someone to understand you…. Because no one will.” he was beginning to tear up as well. “I just don’t know what I want any more Lyndi…” he was becoming a lot more quiet now.

"And if you don't know what you want," Vince said, "you end up with a lot you don't." . Vince didn’t know why he had chosen Lyndi to relieve his troubles on, “The doctor says I’m insane. He says I’m insane because I don’t want to improve the way I am…” he looked towards his book trying to remain focused on what he came here for “Suicide seems very tempting…” he said calmly “Because, maybe just maybe. Maybe self-improvement isn't the answer.... Maybe self-destruction is the answer. “ Vince started writing now. Julius Caesar, what a douche’.

“We are not anyone special. We are not anyone.” he looked at Lyndi “...you're not how much money you've got in the bank. You're not your job. You're not your family, and you're not who you tell yourself.... You're not your name.... You're not your problems.... You're not your age.... You are not your hopes.” he said with a sense of sadness before closing his book.

Rubbing the back of his head, Glenn sighed a bit looking over the list of books in his hand. His English teacher thought him best for the task of fetching the said books while the rest of the class took a test he hadn’t been their to study for. Of course it didn’t help the library was clear across the school from where his first period was, but shaking his head pushed the stupidity of this task out and continued along the tiled floors of one of the school’s hallways.

After another minute, and reaching the said area, pausing a bit at the door to readjust his knee brace he opened the door into the library. Glancing about at both the area in question and his list trying to locate each and every area before running off and trying to find them that way. He paused in his search at the sight of two others, a cheerleader and a football player neither he knew that well, though he had remembered his brother mentioning something similar during the time they had been separated on the island.

Shrugging though, he moved past, stopping before one of the walls of books, blue eyes scanning in search of the first book he needed.

Before and after the worldwide terror known as SOTF, there was very little, if anything, different about Daphne's everyday life. People always avoided her as usual, if not even more so since the event, but really, it was better that day, wasn't it? Casting her fearful looks, creeping away from her as she silently made her way through the halls...yes, for someone who was a direct victim of terror, Daphne appeared, and was, perfectly fine.

Well...perfectly fine according to her standards...

New scars would remain with her, her vision will never again be as it used to be, but really...what was the point of worrying about that? She'd already collected a number of scars and bruises over the years of her childhood...

And now, Daphne had retreated to one of the far, distant corners of the library, away from everyone else, nose buried in a history book (Children at War, on Underage Military Recruitment in the DRC. How lovely.) As she caught the sound of a newcomer shuffling along the aisle, she looked up in slight irritation.

She blinked once, though her expression remained calm and emotionless. She instantly recognized the boy as Glenn Hughes... a person she had run into twice during her stay on the island. The boy had threatened to kill her, as she remembered, seeing her as a threat. But also...he had spared her life.

And Daphne supposed...that it was because of him that she was alive now.

Did such knowledge have any importance? This Daphne wondered to herself. It couldn't be that important, surely. But for some reason...the very knowledge that he had spared her life some how struck her as something...Daphne couldn't find the word to describe it.

Demurely, she looked back towards her beloved text, taking in some of the more graphic images in her current page.

"That's the world history section, if that's what you're looking for."

Vince Samsa obviously had a lot on his mind. Nodding lightly, Lyndi only half listened to what Samsa was telling her. He seemed depressed, and angry. Then again, many students had been through what Samsa himself had gone through. Some had actually had it a lot worse. Closing her eyes momentarily, Lyndi reopened them again just in time to notice a very familiar looking figure stepping through an aisle of library books. A faint smile formed on her face as she slowly stood up.

Heading in the direction in which the figure disappeared quietly, she caught up in time to hear the voice of an unfamiliar student inform him of which section he was currently in. A small smile crept across her face as she placed her hands on her hips and called out in a semi-quiet voice.

"Think you're too good to speak to us now that we're back home?" she inquired playfully.

Upon further inspection of the Hughes twin, however, Lyndi's face flashed a bright shade of red. The figure standing before her was most certainly not Fred Hughes. Rather, it was his twin brother, Glenn. Blushing heavily, Lyndi backed away a few steps.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized quickly, "I thought you were..."

Her voice trailed off. It was almost painfully obvious who she had thought the young man was, who else could she have mistaken Glenn Hughes for? Still standing there with her jaw practically agape, Lyndi was far too embarrassed by her current situation to utter anything more.

Chewing slowly against her lower lip, Lucinda found herself unable to listen to the words that where screaming in her mind to just run to her class right now. But her feet where planted, and why the hell not, she had worked up every little courage in her to say, why not stay around for the response. Though she already had a good idea of what was to come, she still found herself unable to turn around fully and run to her French class like a bat out of hell. Listening lightly, though keeping her head down as Ryan began to talk she found herself fiddling around with the hem of her knee-length skirt.

She blinked in a somewhat surprised manner when a quick rejection didn’t come, though he seemed be more stunned by her confession than anything. ‘But really Luci, what were you expecting?’ She muttered in thought, frowning a bit as she finally found it in her to look up. Watching as he glanced off to the other girl that he had called over, she blinking before a sad smile formed on her lips, watching more as he turned back to face her again. Speaking out again, she blinked again listening to Ryan’s words, before she shrugged. “It’s alright… really…

It’s just; I didn’t see a point in not saying the truth. Though if that’s the best thing or not… after all that’s happened, I just… well… I just had to get it off my chest.” She answered as clam as she could, now playing with a shard of loose hair along her face absentmindedly.

--------

Glenn blankly looked at the large grouping of books before him, rubbing the back of his head a bit as he looked to the paper and then to the books, repeating this a couple of times. After having helped out here so many times, you’d figure he’d know his way around… course not, they just had him checking in the large number of books have the time. So when the female voice close by spoke… he at first didn’t register it, though blinked as he glanced over toward Daphne. A frown of sorts crossing his features…

That girl had been the cause of a death or two on the island herself, he had been there for them… he himself had come close to killing her, but in the end left her with her life. For one he found himself unable to pull the trigger of that pistol and kill the girl… Shortly after though was when they had been rescued and he hadn’t thought of her since, more worried about his brother and friends. “Yeah, this is what I’m looking for though I just can’t seem to find the book itse—“

The sentence was cut-off mid-way when yet another voice broke out, he turning to look at the girl he had since when he had first entered the library talking to that football player, he all but grinning when she noted her mistake. Folding his arms about his chest… “You thought I was…”

“Me.” Another once mused, this coming from behind Lyndi as Fred grinned, though yawned after a moment.

“Reason for you actually being a library, I know you don’t read.” Glenn teased, looking his list over once more.

Fred shrugged, “They’re studying or something for some test, teacher sent me here to catch up on the two I missed, and for this one.” He sighed, cleanly not enjoying the thought of such. Though none the less smiled again, “I see you met my annoying younger twin Glenn.” He muttered, keeping the grin.

As Glenn turned around, clearly amused by Lyndi's mistake, she flushed an even brighter shade of red. Brushing a loose strand of hair out of her face, Lyndi tried to simply shrug off the incident like it was no big deal. However, she was kicking herself internally all the while. As another voice echoed out from behind her, Lyndi twirled around to catch a glimpse of the newcomer, whose voice she recognized with ease. Shaking her head in dismay, she looked at the two young men and began laughing.

As the two conversed between themselves, her embarrassment lightened. It had to happen all the time, right? It was an honest mistake. A five second glimpse of one of the twins did not present enough time to actually tell the two apart. As Fred directed her to his younger brother, she could not help but laugh at the two.

"Yeah... I seem to have met... Glenn," Lyndi mumbled quietly, still laughing to herself, "And as for your... idiot... of a brother, Glenn... yeah. Back on the island... well, you know. The reason I'm here right now is because I ran into him, or at least, that's what I think. Couldn't have survived on my own, you know."

Her face flushed somewhat red again, and she looked toward the ground. After a moment, the bright smile once again returned to her face and she looked up at the two boys. Running her fingers through her loose hair slowly, she bit down on her lower lip for a moment before continuing.

"But... are you two doing alright?"

Her attention turned to Fred, and she nodded toward his torso. Back when she had first stumbled across him, or shall we say, vice versa, on the island, he was in pretty poor shape. She distinctly remembered the bullet wound that she had patched up on his stomach before they had moved off the dirt path on the island.

"I know you were looking pretty worse for wear there for a while," she stated quietly, "But everything's okay now, right?"

Okay. Nothing was okay, in reality. Adjusting to life after Survival of the Fittest was proving to be one of the hardest challenges in Lyndi Thibodeaux's life, and she was sure that it was the same for most, if not all, of the other students who had witnessed the chaos and horror of SOTF. Never again would Barry Coleson High be the same. For that matter, it had made a deep impact on the whole country. Despite that, Lyndi desperately wanted to cling the the appearance of everything being "okay".

Vince watched how Lyndi left him, how everyone had left him. He shouldn’t have felt so bad, he had been alone since he was born…he had been alone since he was born. His mother left him, it should be no surprise that Lyndi had left him. When he had left Survival Of The Fittest he had told the men that he had dropped his weapon… he told them it was a jump rope, and it was no surprise that they had found the jump rope at the Light House. Vince Samsa had kept something special with him, hidden…something that no one would take away from him. He left the Library and went to his locker.

This one thing would be the Arcus 94 he had received from Danya, the Arcus 94 that had saved his life. He had snuck the gun into his locker earlier today; the halls had been cleared long since he put it in there. He took the gun out of his locker and put it into his pocket quickly, he walked back to the library in complete silence and as he walked to the back of the Library he took it out. Chad Andrews was a normal guy; he was a senior so he wasn’t involved in the whole SOTF thing…thank god to. As Chad walked to the back of the Library amongst the books he noticed a large boy with a gun!

Vince stared at the young man with ice blue eyes, his innocence still intact, his life so beautiful. At this time in his life Vince wanted to destroy something beautiful, he unloaded three shots into the boys chest, killing him almost instantly. The shots should have been heard by now, and as he saw the Librarian come towards him and scream Vince couldn’t help but smile…he shot her two times in the chest before putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger.

“You think you know me doc…” Vince said to his new psychologist “and what makes you think I don’t Vince? You are surrounded by violence…Survival Of The Fittest didn’t fuck you up…you are fucked up.” the psychologist said this quite bluntly.

"I used to go into a funeral homes to feel good about myself, just the fact that I was breathing." He said smiling and then he got up and left…this was his third psychologist in the last five years.

People where starting to gather around the three corpses now, to stare at the handy work of the once popular Vince Samsa.

“Hey dad!” an eleven year old Vince said happily “What is it son?” his dad asked. “I've met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, "Why?" Why did I cause so much pain? Didn't I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness? Can't I see that we're all manifestations of love? I looked at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God's got this all wrong. We are not special. We are not crap or trash either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens. And God says, "No, that's not right." Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can't teach God anything..” Vince’s father stared at him curiously and said calmly “You are going to another psychologist”

But, it didn’t matter anymore…because Vince was dead, but despite what everyone will say in the next few days…Survival Of The Fittest wasn’t responsible for another causality…life was responsible for another causality.

Daphne was startled out of silence by the sound of gunshots ringing through the library. Looking mildly surprised, she looked up from a picture of a twelve-year-old holding an assault rifle and gazed towards Vince Samsa, holding a gun, standing over the form of a fellow student, now fallen.

She blinked in surprise as another gunshot rang through the room. The librarian was the next to fall. A shame...Daphne had wanted to check out this book in particular. Now she would have to wait a while.

And the first person to snap is this guy. Later than I'd expected, but....nonetheless....

A third shot ripped through the room, this time taking the life, and a good part of the head of Vince Samsa. The boy had ended his own life, in an explosion of blood and bone and brain matter. Daphne watched with mild fascination. There was blood everywhere, staining the carpet, the shelves, even the books. (Not the history section, to Daphne's relief) Three corpses now adorned the once peaceful, quiet environment of the library.

The conversation Lyndi Thibodeaux had been having with the Hughes twins was suddenly cut short as not one, not two, but three gunshots echoed throughout the silence of the library. It was enough to send Lyndi cowering, but aftering being put through the hell known as Survival of the Fittest, the sound of gunshots were nothing new to her. The sound was almost surreal, and Lyndi stepped past Fred, who had previously stood behind her, in an attempt to find the source of the noise. Surely, not here... not in this place... it's over now, right?

Much to her dismay, Lyndi's fear was confirmed. There, in the floor, lay the bloodied bodies of Vincent Samsa, the librarian, and another student. Tears brimmed up in the girl's eyes as she shook her head, unable to form a coherent sentence. Vince Samsa had gone on a miniature killing spree. He had taken himself out, along with two innocent bystanders. Those two people, they had lost their lives, simply because they had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. As odd as it seemed, the corpses lying on the ground did not send the girl fleeing in horror. Rather, she just stood there in a mixture of awe and shock, staring vacantly at the hollow shells left on the ground.

At the remark of one, Daphne Rudko, Lyndi did not even bother to cast the girl a second glance. The remark had been so cruel, so heartless, so uncaring. Then again, if even Lyndi herself was almost hardened to death, she could only imagine what sort of condition the students who had not been quite so well-off were in at this point. They had seen death, the majority of them had killed at least one person. In that aspect, Lyndi still held her innocence, but now, looking at Vince Samsa's lifeless body, her feelings were more of remorse and pity than anything else.

Finally, Lyndi exhaled audibly and cast a look back at the Hughes boys, whom she had all but forgotten were there in the moments that had passed since Vince had killed himself. Shaking her head slightly, she brushed the tears away and bit down on her lower lip. Vince Samsa had snapped, and this was the aftermath of his insanity. Somehow, Lyndi figured that there would be more to come. After all, did the government, society, everybody... did they all think that things would just go back to normal after what everyone had seen and been through?

"They didn't do a thing, but he killed them," Lyndi muttered quietly, "It... might be one of us next time, you know. I don't think this is over... he's probably the first of many to come. The next person might shoot up the entire school..."

As she spoke, a tone of panic overtook her voice. Still, she spoke the words quietly, asphyxiating her gaze on the corpses lying in the library floor. Blinking back another set of tears, she continued on.

"Maybe mom was right... about everything..."

She hesitated. Her mother had indeed argued with her about returning to this high school, especially after all the events that had unfolded, and given the number of known killers who now freely walked the halls of the school. But... if her mother had been right about Barry Coleson High School, had she been right about the other things too? Casting a distraught look at the twins once again, Lyndi tried to shake the thought from her head as she finally broke her eyes away from the bodies.

Fred mused a small grin as Lyndi questioned on how things had been going since their time on the island; he watching out the corner of his eye as his brother shrugged his shoulders. Rubbing his arm a bit where the cut was a bit as he seemed to be have more interested on the books on the book self than anything else as he grabbed at a book, looking it over before tucking it under his arm. Looking at the small piece of paper in his hand, before grabbing at another book. The older twin turning back to fully look at Lyndi;

“I’ve been fine… I’m not going to be able to play soccer this year though because of the wound in my chest. But… that’s about the worst of my problems.” He muttered, leaning back against one of the selves against the wall crossing his arms about his chest as he looked over the girl before him, smiling a bit. He was really happy to see that see was okay, he hadn’t seen her since the helicopters and they had been separated when they had arrived at the hospital.

But as he opened his mouth to ask how she had been doing, he found the once silent environment of the library being destroyed by the sudden burst of gunfire. He moving forward past the row of books that blocked the front of the library from being viewed from where he currently stood he came to witness the scene of the three dead bodies staining the carpeted floor of the room. The bodies of Vince, another student, and the librarian where the reason of the mess, Fred stepping back a bit away from the sight… he figured that once he had gotten out of SOTF he would never have to see any of this again… but here it was. Both his, and everyone who had been involved in the event’s fears coming to life here in there own school. A place where they where supposed to be safe when they where away from home…

Gulping some, Fred glanced to Lyndi as she talked, not being able to help but agree with her words to some degree… unable to think of anything to say, and instead kept still pressed against the book self again. Hardly noting the comment made by the only other girl in the room at the moment, Glenn too stepping up beside the other two as he looked to the scene briefly before turning away from it, shaking his head some. Only briefly glancing at Daphne, narrowing his eyes in anger lightly at the girl’s comment before he just went to his thoughts.

He didn’t know Vince, or the other students, and he had spent a number of school hours here in the library, so he knew the librarian well… but now… all three where dead and bleeding on the floor. He found himself listening lightly as the door leading into the library burst open, the gunfire no doubt probably heard from downstairs as one of the campus police came in, his own gun wielded in his hand. Voice demanding that everyone kept still, as he went about looking over the scene itself.